ABOUT

Visual Storyteller & Educator
Based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

BIO

Kevin Hetzel (b. 1992) is a visual storyteller and educator based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Working across various mediums, his work centers on memory, identity, family, and the quiet moments that shape our lives. Inspired by personal history and everyday experience, he celebrates the individuals and places that often go unnoticed while considering how relationships, place, and time influence who we become.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Memory has a way of changing the experiences we carry with us. Certain details remain vivid while others fade, and sometimes the most ordinary moments become the ones we remember most. Much of my work comes from my own experiences and the relationships, places, and memories that have directly or indirectly shaped who I am.

I am interested in how personal histories become shared histories and how memory can both preserve and distort our experiences. The individuals, relationships, and places within my work are often deeply familiar to me, but the stories they carry extend beyond my own. They become opportunities to consider the people we remember, the places we return to, and the experiences that continue to influence how we understand ourselves and one another.

Growing up in a working-class family taught me to value labor, patience, and craftsmanship. Those ideas continue to shape both my subjects and the way I make work. The medium becomes part of the message. The act of making becomes inseparable from the meaning of the work itself.

Ultimately, I make work to preserve moments that might otherwise be forgotten, celebrate individuals whose stories are often overlooked, and give lasting form to the memories, relationships, and places that continue to shape our lives.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART
Honolulu, HI

Lending Collection Manager | 2026–Present
Drawing & Painting Studio Programs Teacher | 2025–2026

HAWAIʻI SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AT LA PIETRA
Honolulu, HI

Dean of Academics & Faculty | 2025–2026
Visual Arts Instructor | 2024–2025

LANDON SCHOOL
Bethesda, MD

Permanent Collection Coordinator | 2022–2024
Form IV Dean | 2022–2024
Interim Form III Dean | 2021, 2023
Upper School Visual Arts Instructor | 2019–2024